House prices in UK continued their rising trend for the fifth consecutive month, reporting 0.9% increase in September, according to a release of the Nationwide Building Society on Friday. The prices, by and large, remained at the nearest level of previous year at £161,816 ($257,772).

A Dow Jones Newswires survey last week projected 0.7% increase in house prices on monthly basis and 0.3% drop on annual basis. Nationwide's chief economist, Martin Gahbauer said that the recent rise in prices indicates that the worst has been over and the economy is on recovery path.

Gahbauer added, "However, given that the housing market still faces considerable headwinds in the form of high unemployment, restrictive credit conditions and an impending withdrawal of the stamp duty holiday, it would be surprising to see house prices continuing to increase at the very strong rate seen in recent months."

A number of measures were taken by the government, including suspension of stamp duty, in order to revive demand in housing segment.

House prices increased 4.1% in the first nine months of the current financial year. However, prices are still lower than actual house prices in 2007.